ironymaiden | Entries tagged with consumption

making bath bombs continues to be the current craft obsession. my cosmetic dyes & lakes have arrived and the first attempt at color is drying now.

today i ordered more citric acid, polysorbate 80, and fragrance oil samples. i also got some knockoff labware pipettes and microscoops.

things i've learned:

my taste in fragrance samples is so...me. (it's all aspirational/firing in the dark since i can only go on descriptions.) like i read the names off and C laughed. look, if they actually get anywhere near "bonfire" or "cinnamon roll" i'm going to be extremely happy.
Edmonds Scientific has gone out of business. i loved that catalog so much when i was a kid and i thought they would always be around.
i looked at buying real borosilicate pipettes from Fisher and was not prepared to spend a few hundred dollars on a case of 12. so i'll deal with some cheap glass knockoffs, it's not like i'm making medications - it hurts me how inexpensive and convenient it would be to get one-time plastic ones with integrated bulbs to throw away.
of the three libraries i have access to, the one with the DIY bath books is the one that includes Island County. coincidence? i think not. also, all three of the books i got out turned out to be slim, free of any reference to chemistry or safety, and heavy on the girl power and/or crappy woo. ("sisterpreneurs" shudder, "baths" for each star sign that - if you read more than one - used the same recipe repeatedly.)
it feels like the people who talk about bath bombs on the internet are all white women with everything that comes with that (see book cringe above). it turns out that using mooncake press molds to shape bath bombs is a thing. and hey, they're gorgeous and look like fun to use. but i feel like it smacks of cultural appropriation and somehow that conversation doesn't seem to have happened (or at least it didn't blow up enough for google to index it). i have fond memories of mooncakes shared by co-workers over the years during the Mid-Autumn Festival. i've been thinking about it on and off all afternoon; i think mostly it bothers me that white people are selling them and seem oblivious to what the press was made for.

i used to have a reasonably-sized set of Wilton gel colors that i used for dying yarn/fiber (and occasionally food). not that i can find them now. C thinks that i might have purged them at one point since we do live across the street from JoAnn's.

this is to say that i was plotting the next batch of bath bombs and thought i might try adding some color, and surely gel food color would be an appropriate choice since it wouldn't add water to the mixture? i did a little research and it turns out that it's better that i didn't find them - dye for uses where it may contact your delicate bits must pass more stringent safety testing than dye you can eat. ("lip safe" is chemically less irritating than "food safe".) technically i can make food-colored ones for myself, but i shouldn't give them away and it's illegal to sell them. since i'm sensitive to a random assortment of chemicals i probably shouldn't chance it.

so now there's a sampler of two different types of lip safe cosmetic colorants coming my way.

Current Mood: artistic
Current Location: Command Station
Current Music: C watching Ninja Battoman

My very very long socks and "industrial garter belt" arrived and they are a joy. The socks are soft and opaque and go to mid thigh (extra long was the right call). The belt is labeled as sports gear - I forgot how much roller derby business Sock Dreams does. The belt is not visible under the dress I tried. Now to see how well they hold up to dog walks and working.

Current Mood: satisfied
Current Location: The tub

a local shop is doing a BOGO sale, so what started as a "new pants for C" trip turned into new pants for C, two dresses and a skirt for me. one dress has bookshelves, and the other has an allover print of scientific equipment. then i was going to order tights but instead ended up with a garter belt and extra long thigh-high socks.* i've worn dresses a lot more in the last year, so i might as well have warm legs. i'm not sure why i got out of the garter habit, as someone who is both heavy and tall "one size" in tights never fits (and the color choices for things that do fit are bland). more like i got out of the skirt/dress habit and the underpinnings dwindled away as they wore out or my weight fluctuated.

i have also finally committed to preordering a pair of Bernadettes. they claim to be walkable due to the heel construction. (if it's really true American Duchess may take a lot of my money.)

Several folks in my circle are doing the Snowflake Challenge, and #12 "resurrect an old meme" amused me. so here's a real blast from the past:

you are yellow
#FFFF00

Your dominant hues are red and green, so you're definately not afraid to get in and stir things up. You have no time for most people's concerns, you'd rather analyze with your head than be held back by some random "gut feeling".

Your saturation level is very high - you are all about getting things done. The world may think you work too hard but you have a lot to show for it, and it keeps you going. You shouldn't be afraid to lead people, because if you're doing it, it'll be done right.

Your outlook on life is very bright. You are sunny and optimistic about life and others find it very encouraging, but remember to tone it down if you sense irritation.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

*the fabulous Sock Dreams is out of stock on A LOT of things, even ones that are made in the US. pretty sure supply chains are fucked.

Current Mood: pretty
Current Location: deluxe apartment in the sky
Current Music: WWII in Color (with commentary by C)

i'm starting to think that i shop more when i feel uncertain. i had a burst of lockdown shopping in the spring of 2020 (i think a lot of us did) and i realized that it has started again.

in the last week:

new fitted sheets (needed them but did i really need to try out three kinds from two different vendors?)
popsicle molds (these were unavailable during the last burst of shopping, probably due to shipping issues with China)
a two-year subscription to Interweave Knits
a POUND of a tea flavor i liked in a free sample

Just got a ham for $.67/lb.

If you have a way to store big hunks of beast, now is the time to get them. (We had decided to be lazy and have a fancy holiday meal on sale instead of on Christmas and I knew it would work but wow I was not expecting that steep a discount.) Feeling a bit sad about the warm weather/lack of a big freezer.

Current Mood: My house smells like ham
Current Music: gonna eat ham all week

as was foretold, the kigurumi is here, it fits*, and it's a good thing they didn't have these when i was in college because my first roommate and i would have lived in them. (among other things, we used to go to an 8am class with wet hair still wrapped in a towel. at least we showered?) kigurumi is the modern fulfillment of Mike Daisey's admonition to new college students:

If comfort was our only goal as a species, we’d all be wandering around in velour sacks, idly masturbating, and eating fistfuls of pudding.

for today, my homework is done and i can get down to reading fluffy romances and/or watching Tudor Monastery Farm in this ~~velour~~fleecy sack to my heart's content.
i do too many video meetings to get away with wearing it on normal working days, but Halloween is coming 😈

*it's made by a Japanese company and came with Japanese tags. at 5'9" i am a giant by Asian clothing standards; the XL was a good call, it just reaches my wrists and ankles

i told C that i ordered a kigurumi, and he said "hikikomori"?

no, just feels like it sometimes.

Current Location: the battlestation
Current Music: lecture on safe/unsafe/idempotent

i got a tiny waffle iron and it is a delight. if you have warm feelings about eggos or about institutional belgian waffle makers, i recommend it.

Current Mood: full
Current Location: deluxe apartment in the sky
Current Music: Airplane!

scans_daily posted: NoScans: Every Black Panther comic currently free on Comixology

that's where the tea mug goes. between the left and right halves.

tomorrow the tenting kit arrives in a second box. this is the first time in years i've typed on a flat keyboard without wrist rests. those need to get here pronto.

i was afraid that my typing was going to be too idiosyncratic and i would discover that i've been doing something with the "wrong" hand for decades. nah.

the 9 inch cable is just long enough. if i had more chest i would definitely have wanted to go wider. as it is i already feel taller.

even without the tenkey, it takes up at least as much desk real-estate from outer edge to outer edge, except that i have a mug and could probably have a small notebook in the open middle space. i dig it.

it has a bunch of macro keys that i've never bothered with on other keyboards (mostly because they didn't want to work on Mac or were too far a reach or inconsistent on Windows). beginning and end of line keys will be my friends. we'll see if i having cut/copy/paste/undo keys is worthwhile when the muscle memory is so strong.

the Turkish towels mentioned here arrived, and while i haven't dried off with them yet, i am charmed that they each came wrapped in a ribbon with a nazar, and one of them also had a wee pouch with drawstrings tipped with bitty nazar beads containing a delicate evil eye necklace.

i'll try to keep staying safe! thanks, towel friends.

i've made a lot of random and not-so-random purchases the last few months of being at home.

mumble-mumble TeeTurtle t-shirts (mostly preorders, mostly for C)

tea from the place i would normally walk to from the office

road id for C's fitbit and the dog's collar. (it's been a struggle to get a medical alert for his penicillin allergy to last, hope this is a good solution.)

Turkish towels. which, it turns out, are coming from actual Turkey. (i chose the vendor because they were direct trade, was not expecting it to be _that_ direct.)

a lickimat.

various hair products - i'm trying to make a commitment to buy from black-owned businesses for my curly hair needs. (the sampler from EcoSlay was nice but not ideal for my hair, the Miss Jessie's Honey Curls is a real holy grail - works great, smells better.)

i got a cute dress at Target in the before times. i love it and they still had some so i ordered a few more of the same in other colors

fiber from a dyer i like who had to move across the country.

MY BIG MONITOR CAME! it took like, ten days for it to arrive which feels like an eternity when one is used to well-stocked retailers and Amazon Prime. it is now on an arm over the table and it feels wonderful. when i go back to the office it will upgrade the desk docking station.*

*i don't use the desk daily because a) i prefer the option to stand b) work computer won't recognize that monitor and i've never been able to figure out why and c) i hate to lock C out of gaming, which is what the setup is mostly for.

i've complained in the past about the bullshirt around buying a one-piece swimsuit when you have a long body.

today i discovered that Lorica, home of armor leggings, makes swimsuits. and they come in long.

the Henry VIII is on order.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: deluxe apartment in the sky
Current Music: Sounders vs Columbus

my swimsuit has worn out; i broke down and ordered a new one tonight.

every fucking time i have to buy a swimsuit it makes me furious. there are three brands that make long enough suits, and then only a tiny subset of the suits they make are actually "long torso". i also get to pay a 10% premium over "regular".

and gods forbid i want to wear a color i really like, because then i can have exactly nothing.

Current Mood: the new one is navy
Current Location: i'm an autumn, damn it. i can't even find a red, let alone green or orange.
Current Music: blue or black those are my choices

philotera put together a Jólabókafló∂ party (but in January because fuck trying to wedge something else into December) and it was delightful. there were about 20 of us, and several people who didn't know each other - we did a random draw and many of us had to do some stalking.*

we had pan-scandinavian smörgåsbord, with three kinds of pickled herring, fish dumplings, open-faced roast beef on rye, an epic smörgåstårta, homemade bread, cheeses, chocolates, and cookies. i failed to take pictures but everything was both pretty and delicious.

we went around the room and opened the books one at a time. wonder of wonders, in the entire party only one book had been read by the recipient (and he loved the book but didn't own a copy). then

philotera gave everyone another book she had chosen, or in my case a brick that consisted of an entire series of paperbacks by David Gemmell that i haven't read.

i had the toughest draw, the manager of a local bookstore. they write a book review blog and have an extensive goodreads, plus they wrote a good likes/dislikes post. example one star novels: Sabriel, The Golem and the Jinni. dislikes include: YA, epic fantasy. wow, we do not want the same things out of books. (hopefully soon i will come up with the time to write a post about what i learned about myself.) ultimately i had a good time solving the puzzle of what book i had read and endorsed that a) they had not and b) might actually like. the list was short, but i settled on Too Like the Lightning. not only had they not read it, but they had previously held the book in their hand and nearly purchased it (only because they didn't like the typesetting on the paperback, but i had purchased the more-readable hardcover). victory!

i did get to talk with them about why Sabriel was a one star.** they don't like anything that has a flavor of folk tale or narrative distance from the characters. i wouldn't have said that it reads that way, but i can see it, and Sabriel herself is pretty stoic.

i hope (if

philotera is in the US at the appropriate time next year) we do it again.

*the whole thing was coordinated via facebook, which always makes me sad. it did allow everyone to supply links to their various goodreads and amazon wishlists and blogs and whatnot. (i didn't link to my books tag here because i'm never voluntarily connecting this account to my facebook activity.)
**✨Sabriel by Garth Nix✨ i endorse this book and its immediate sequel, Lirael...and might love the latter more due to having a giant library and a dog.

i have a hot tub in my courtyard. i often forget to go because it's a whole two floors away and it's outside and...it's so nice. last night i put my kindle in a ziploc, popped downstairs and did one cycle of jets while i read and it was lovely. i need to go more often.

my cousin D has been visiting Dad on the regular and sending out email updates. she's been a wonderful support and cheerleader.

new stationary is delightful. i started a new box of cards today and it is a pleasure to see how ink flows on the new surface. (they came from Kinokuniya and man, the Japanese bookstore has all the best pens and paper goods.)

Ritter Sport bars were on sale at Bartells. the cornflakes bar has already been consumed, but there might still be a few squares of marzipan when i get home.

my membership in the Washington Kayak Club fb group was approved, and it looks like a deal of casual planning for practice and trips happens there. yay for chances to kayak more.

i have a giant novelty Shivan Dragon card on my desk at work.* it started a conversation that led to me doing an inventory of our Magic cards in order to build some decks and get back into playing more regularly. we have a lot of cards; enough that they inspired the purchase of our Alexandria Codex.** when i started to check to see if we had anything of value, C planted the idea of using them to buy a kayak.

the long-story-short is that with a bit of research and some legwork i turned 80 cards (an invisible loss from the collection) into kayak money. my goal was to be completely budget-neutral and only spend from the card proceeds. mischief managed.

a deck worth of Magic cards buys:

a used Oru Bay+***

float bags (no bulkheads in the Oru, this keeps the hull buoyant in a capsize)

spray skirt

safety kit (paddle float, bilge pump, really loud whistle)

a Werner Skagit paddle****

a 15L dry bag

i'll have all of it in my possession in time for the long weekend. very excited.

* which came from

the_monkey_king cleaning out his basement mumble-mumble years ago. i missed hanging out with him at a potluck today due to the craigslist thing mentioned below :/

** RIP GeekChic

***

philotera hooked me up with Sailor J, who was looking to trade it in for a model with a larger cockpit. for my lifestyle it has to be a packable boat due to lack of storage and lack of vehicle. i could get a regular kayak cheaper, but then i would make the cost up rapidly in paying for marina rack space, and that doesn't even take into account paying for a car to move it anywhere else.

**** today's drama involved the paddle. i was going to buy a Camano (a model up from the Skagit) and safety gear from a craigslist guy, but someone bought it out from under me. dude contacted me after i had already booked a zipcar to go to his house and it was too late to cancel. but i now i had this car to use for 90 minutes...so i took my money to the REI Labor Day sale and got the paddle that i could afford new instead. which is still very nice and made in Washington. the safety stuff and the dry bag were also on sale.

i took a daylong kayak touring class yesterday. morning was skills evaluation and practice, afternoon was rescue skills. i was there for moar rescue time, since i am still trying to master self-rescue.

due to life stuff, this was my first time on the water in 2018. the good news is that i had no trouble launching or landing and all my strokes came back to me effortlessly. i could go pretty darn fast and was tracking well (going straight ahead in a line instead of snaking left and right). assisted rescue came back easily, and i swear that i'm more able to lift a swamped boat than i was in the fall (and this was a heavier boat).

self-rescue was better too, but still not good enough. now i can get my body onto the boat, then capsize again while attempting to get my legs into the cockpit. i am sad about this, but OTOH this is without any of the conditioning that i planned to do this year, after doing the first paddling i had done in over six months.* i need to practice. and it's pretty ridiculous for me to imagine that any physical skill would come to me without the hours of repetition that has been required for every other physical skill i've ever learned. in doing more research today on the subject, the most "serious" of the local outdoor schools won't even take you if you can't haul your body out of a swimming pool without a ladder--i'm not sure i could do that when i was a lithe tween who was swimming several hours a day--but that's what i need to work on. so that's the next thing - conditioning, swimming, finding out if NWOC might let me practice wet exit and self-rescue by their dock.

( class notes, mostly for me )

my pfd with aftermarket crotch straps was great. i also ran out the wetsuit in the afternoon. it was comfy in the water but sweaty for paddling so i'd say this one is definitely just for colder weather. getting it on and off requires quite a bit of strength and flexibility. (i can see myself adding a lighter Farmer Jane to my quiver in the future.) the nice thing about the full wetsuit was that it kept most of me out of the sun. unfortunately i forgot to renew the sunscreen on my hands after i pulled it on.

***
there was a point where one of the instructors was talking about moving the boat with your hips and referred to it as "your mermaid tail". that's very much how it feels when everything is adjusted correctly, that it's an extension of my body. yes please, more of that sensation of flying through the water.

*they intentionally have you paddle for several hours before you do the rescue practice, since it's pretty much going to happen when you're tired.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: deluxe apartment in the sky
Current Music: Germany v Mexico

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Page generated May. 25th, 2025 03:29 am

the girly who shall end all girls

please scream inside your heart

Entries tagged with consumption

fun with a side of self-loathing

taste the rainbow, but don't sit in it

and fuck the patriarchy

just girly things

amazon is all out of faith in democracy, dammit

PSA

needs more pudding

a peach narwhal, because it had flipper mittens and was on sale

definitely ten dollars of joy

Signal Boost: NoScans: Every Black Panther comic currently free on Comixology

first thoughts on having a split keyboard

we need all the help we can get, i guess

buy all the things

i think i've owned televisions smaller than this thing

the center of the venn diagram 66/366

the dead one was dark brown and gold with a high neck: unusual, flattering, and irreplaceable

Jólabókafló∂

Thankful Thursday

cardboard to plastic

spending time with my mermaid tail